Indianapolis- a historical and statistical sketch, 1870,WR Holloway

STATE FAIR-EXPLOSION.
manufacturing by displaying our manufactures advantageously; hag done quite as
much, probably, by exhibiting the condition and improvements of the city
to the
tens of thousands of visitors annually attracted by its fairs ; and has done more
still by swelling our trade, as well as advertising it. Gov. Wright was the first
President, and has been suceedeu by General Joseph Orr, A. C. Stevenson, Geo. D.
Wagner, David P. Hollo way, J. D. Williams, Stearns Fisher and A. D. Hamrick.
The Secretaries have been John B. Dillon, W. T. Dennis, Ignatius Brown, W. H.
Loomis, A. J. Holmes and Fielding Beeler. The Fairs, which have formed pretty
much all the business of the Board, have been generally held here, with enough
diversion to other points to demonstrate the advantages of our central location and
railroad connections. Here, they were held on the Military Ground, which had
been prepared by a high fence, and suitable "halls" or sheds, stalls, and other
appliances, till 1860, when a large and beautiful grove north of the city, and clear
beyond its limits at that time, was bought and fitted up, not handsomely, but so
expensively, that what with the cost, the falling off in the interest in fairs during
the war. the occupancy of the new grounds by the Government as a volunteer and
prison camp, and the necessity of removing to the old ground, the Board was left
with a debt on its hands which embarrassed it for several years. Since the close of
the war, these [the Camp Morton] grounds have been reopened and refitted in excel-
lent style, and during the fall of the present year [1870], the fairs both of the Indi-
anapolis Association and the State Board, have been successfully held there. Its
occupation as a prison camp during the war injured it greatly by causing the
destruction of nearly all its superb trees. The General Government has, how-
ever, made some, if not full, compensation for these injuries. Fairs held at other
points have either occupied the grounds of County Associations or been provided
for by the citizens in consideration of the supposed benefit of having their town
overrun by crowds for four or five days. The first was held for six days, in October
19 25, 1852, on the Military ground, and was very successful, the entries amount-
ing to 1,365. The fair of 1853 was held at Lafayette, and as an additional attrac-
tion, Horace Greeiey was obtained to deliver an address. Still it was not so
successful as to warrant any strong hopes from the policy ^f making the fairs
peripatetic. But the larger towns were indisposed to concede any advantages to
the Capital, which they considered their rival, and demanded, as a right, that the
"show" should come round to all of them in turn. The State Board decided to
hold it here one year out of every three, as a compromise between the blind impor-
tunacy of other towns and its own interests, and it accordingly went to Madison in
October, 1854. There its failure was so conspicuous
95
and dismal that the Board
but with the determination
brought it back, not only in accordance with their rule,
to keep it here. In 1855, 1856, 1857 and 1853 it was held here with decided sue
cess, especially in 1856 and 1857, when the receipts rose to $13,000 and 14,600
respectively. In 1859 the Board was forced into traveling again, and took the
fair to New Albany. The receipts fell off to $8,000. It was decided to stop the
traveling business and locate the fair permanently hure, and here it remained through
I860 the war prevented it in 1861 1862, 1863, 1864. In 1865 it was taken to
Fort Wayne, where it was quite successful came back in 1866, and went to Terre
Haute in 1867. The fair of 1869, here, was marked by a horrible catastrophe. Two saw
mills were running a race on Friday, the first day of October, taking their power
from the boiler in "Power Hall," and, through the culpable negligence or interest
of the engineer, it was allowed to become red.hot, and exploded, killing and wound-
ing nearly one hundred people. The disaster would have been far more terrible if